As part of our continuing discussion of singlism and matrimania in pictures, I just had to share the image of this sleep shirt. Fits right in with the “you are my everything” and “I just want to be your everything” mentality that is part of the culture of intensive coupling.

Recently, my friend and colleague Wendy Morris sent me the picture of this billboard. (In case the words are hard to see, it says, “Married people earn more money.”) Wendy is a terrific singles scholar and she is providing guidance to the next generation of researchers. One of her students, Kate Maloney, first noticed the billboard. (Thanks, Kate and Wendy!) Kate was offended by the crass message that people should marry for money. Wendy objected to the discrimination that factors into married people’s greater haul.

This “All Things Single (and More)” blog is still fairly new, and so I see it as a place that, for now, is mostly read by what I think of as an inner circle of people. Of course, I don’t know everyone who is reading this, but I do recognize the names used by many of the people who post comments. Some have participated in conversations at Living Single. Sometimes I hear from readers by email as well. I hope that the readership will grow over time, but for now, I’m kind of enjoying the more personal feel of this blog.

“marital and family status. The unstated premise of Fallin’s comment is: ‘I’m a mom and she’s not.’ And the unstated but barely disguised conclusion is: ‘And that makes me better and leaves her lacking in a material way.’”